TO THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 



163 



Epistles, this celebrated library does not contain any thing valuable ; 

 the rest of it to the number of 300 consists of Fathers, Homilies, 

 Legends, and Rituals. I was permitted by the Superior to bring 

 along with me six of what I judged the oldest MSS., viz. two copies 

 of the Gospels, one of the Epistles, two books of Homilies and 

 apostolical letters, which I took for the sake of the quotations, and 

 a copy of the Sophist Libanius, the only work like a classic author 

 that I met with. I hope the Patriarch will allow me to convey 

 them to England. I was fortunate enough to attain most of the 

 objects I hinted to your Lordship, as having in view in my visit to 

 Palestine. I saw sufficient of the country, &c, to clear up many 

 difficulties in the Oriental writers of history which had puzzled me 

 not a little ; and above all, I obtained a dictionary of the vernacular 

 language of the country, and established a train of enquiry, by which 

 I shall be able in future to procure any farther intelligence I may 

 wish for on that subject. I conceive, my Lord, this to be the only 

 rational source of information by which we may hope to explain 

 many of those passages in SS., which, depending upon local habits 

 or vernacular dialect, are in vain to be elucidated by means of books 

 alone. Yet this source, as far as I am acquainted, (except in 

 Michaelis's questions to Niebuhr and his companions,) has been less 

 resorted to than almost any other. From Jaffa I proceeded to 

 Rhodes, where I spent near a fortnight. From thence, I sailed by 

 Cos, Samos, Chios, to Smyrna, occasionally visiting the Continent 

 where there was any thing worthy inspection. From Smyrna I took 

 a Greek vessel to the Dardanelles, and from thence was conveyed in 

 a Turkish row-boat to Constantinople. 



I. D. Carlyle. 



Y 2 



